 and open it up at night for this, uh... How do you do? I'm Edward Mel, speaking from the Naval Photographic Center in Washington, D.C. With me is Mr. Paul Garber of the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum. We and our associates will bring to you a series of programs on a subject that has been of interest to mankind since time immemorial and is vital to modern civilization. Our subject is the history of life. These programs are derived from lectures that Mr. Garber has been giving for more than 40 years. His audiences have included the students and faculties of our service academies, many universities, colleges, various youth organizations, and persons interested in aeronautics. These talks have been part of the educational program of the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to his recent retirement, Mr. Garber was head curator and senior historian of the National Air and Space Museum and assistant director in charge of the Department of Aeronautics. For 50 years, he has been closely associated with the collecting of many of the most famous aircraft in the world and came to know many of the world's notable aeronauts, aviators, and astronauts. His participation in this series of programs is made possible by the Ramsey Fund, a research program established for the museum by the late Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Ramsey in honor of her husband, who was incidentally a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in 1912 and one of the first naval aviators, both very good friends of Mr. Garber. The suggestion that Mr. Garber participated in these programs came from the aviation education staff of the Federal Aviation Administration. Many of the illustrations and photographs which you are to see have been selected from the Historical Research Center of the National Air and Space Museum. The National Archives, located here in Washington, has been very cooperative in furnishing photographs, motion picture films, and other material from its extensive files. And we, here at the Naval Photographic Center, are most pleased to provide the direction and production of this series. Mr. Paul Edward Garber is a native of New Jersey, educated in the schools of that state and the District of Columbia, University of Maryland, and graduate schools. He now resides in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Garber, when did you first become interested in aeronautics? Well, as a boy, Ed, I like to make and fly kites, in fact, I still do. But it was in 1999 when I saw Orville Wright fly at Fort Mayer that I received an inspiration that has continued throughout my aeronautical career. I, as I got off the streetcar, I saw this huge man-made machine, not something like my little kites, coming at me in the air, a man sitting in it, working levers, propellers whirling around the sound of this engine, and it came at me and passed overhead and around and beyond. And I stood there transfixed, just odd and astounded by what I'd seen. How old were you then, Paul? I was nine. I'm as old as the years. And then, from that experience, I went home and made a model of that airplane, as best I could. You did, Paul? Well, I won't say that it flew, Ed, but I'll say that it lost altitude slowly. Then among my school friends, I organized a club to make and fly model airplanes. That club is not quite still going, although certainly its influence was far-felt. The organization was revived after the war. But two years after I organized that model airplane club, I was myself in the air. I understand that you are past president of the early birds. What is that organization called? The early birds is an organization of pilots who flew solo prior to December 17th, 1916, mostly, you say, before the First World War, because we were somewhat different from those military fliers who learned to fly at Uncle Sam's expense, and we that had to fly at our own and sometimes make our own aircraft. There are many fine gentlemen, fine ladies, who are members of that organization. And through that membership, I've met many of those persons. Glenn Curtis was sitting in his airplane when I asked him for it for the museum. I knew Orville Wright. He came to the museum. We discussed various exhibits. And then I met him several times at his hotel room, offices. I knew Glenn Martin. And among living early birds, good friends are Igor Sikorsky, Grover Launning, General Lawn and General Folloy, who are in this pic painting behind us, the first two passengers of Orville Wright at Fort Meier. I knew them. And then among modern fliers, I know Charles Lindbergh. He's kind as you are to address me by my first name. Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, Lincoln Ellsworth, the famous trans-Arctic and Arctic flyer. Charles Dolphus, the noted aeronaut. It was through Hap Arnold, General of the Air Force, that I met Mrs. Gorber. I've always been grateful to him for that and the other favors. I've had the privilege of meeting astronaut Shepard and Glenn and some of the others. It's been a marvelous experience through the early birds and through my museum associations to have met these persons whose story we are now going to tell. Although he doesn't look at Paul as a veteran of both world wars, having been in the Army in the first one and a commander in the Navy in the second, continuing in the Naval Reserve for a number of years. Prior to his Smithsonian career, he had been in the air mail service of the post office department. Paul, how do you propose to tell us the story of the history of flight? I want to start at the very beginning. The whole story parallels the progress of civilization. When we think of man as he came upon Earth with the many limitations, restrictions to his wish to go from one place to another, he must have envied the birds that could so easily go from one place to another through the air. And so the birds were an inspiration to him. Also the rising smoke of his fire gave him reason to think that something that he made could go up into the heavens. From those two we get the airplane and the balloon. So we'll begin with nature, flight in nature, some interesting examples, and then man's yearning to fly, as shown in his religion, mythology, fantasy, fiction, art and poetry. Then the kite, the first form of aircraft, made the man about 3,000 years ago, at least. The Middle Ages saw such developments as those of Leonardo da Vinci with whom he can start up on a scientific basis. Roger Bacon, the tower jumpers, Emanuel Spavenborg, so many of them. And then came the balloon. The man made sphere that rose into the air carrying man. When the balloon was made elongated and given power it moved through the air and became the dirigible airship like the early one here of Baldwin and the more advanced one, the beautiful Hindenburg, 1937. Then another form of aircraft came into development that is not lighter than air but heavier than air. We need to have lift, propulsion and control there. And there were many ways in which persons tried to develop that from the first crewed thinking to the marvelous powered efforts of the Langley and others. Then from that emerged the Wright brothers who deserve a chapter to themselves. After the Wright brothers came the Burley birds and then World War I. Followed by World War I was the golden age of famous flights first across the continent non-stop, first across the Atlantic, first around the world, first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, races, duration, distance. These many ways in which aircraft developed and then the associated progress that made that development possible such as with navigation, propulsion, and then the governmental assistance as with the FAA that's now so helpful to us established in 1926 and then the NACA which is now NASA Space Agency, Aeronautical Space Agency. So then from that period comes World War II out of which came four things, the practical helicopter, the guided missile, the jet engine aircraft, and the rocket. I should have at least one session devoted to current developments as with DTOL aircraft that is the vertical takeoff and rising types and then with rocket propulsion we go into space. Well as you can see that's a pretty comprehensive presentation of the subject. We intend to devote a half hour to each show in the series but some of the units in that outline will require more than just one such period. Such a vast subject as the history of flight can't be confined into a small package. We know that you'll all agree that every phase of it is interesting. Paul Garber, the Navy is very pleased and proud to be associated with you in the presentation of this series. It's all yours Paul. Thank you Ed. As I contemplate that this progress from Orville Wright to the present has happened within my lifetime that I saw him fly that I can turn on the television and see man step on the moon. I'm so impressed with what I want to do. I appreciate all of this cooperation. Our story of the history of flight begins when the only forms of flight were in nature. This is the wing of an American Eagle. It is one of the many natural flight specimens that were studied by Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley, the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was one of the great pioneers of flight starting his studies of that science in 1887. Later on in this series I'll tell you more about his many accomplishments. But now I want to read to you of his early impressions of the wonder of flight. One of Langley's favorite statements was, knowledge begins in wonder. I have chosen the following quotation because it is an impressive introduction to the fact that natural flight was the inspiration for man flight. These are Langley's words. I will remember how, as a child, when lying in a New England pasture I watched a hawk soaring far up in the blue and sailing for a long time without any motion of its wings as though it needed no work to sustain it, but kept up there by some miracle. But however sustained I saw it sweep in a few seconds of its leisurely flight over a distance that to me was encumbered by every sort of obstacle which did not exist for it. The wall of which I had climbed when I left the road, the ravine I had crossed, the patch of undergrowth through which I had pushed my way. All these were nothing to the bird. And while the road had only taken me in one direction the bird's level highway led everywhere and opened the way into every nook and corner of the landscape. How wonderfully easy too was its flight. There was not a flutter of its opinions as I swept over the field in a motion that seemed as effortless as that of its shadow. After many years and immature life I was brought to think of these things again and to ask myself whether the problem of artificial flight was as hopeless and as observed as it then seemed to be. Nature had solved it. Why not man? From that beautifully written passage by Dr. Langley we learn three things. First, the flight began in nature. Second, that the birds and other flying creatures were an inspiration to man. And third, that travel through the air is a much more efficient way of going from place to place than travel on the ground where there are so many obstacles. Langley was not the first person to wonder how birds can fly. In his writings he accredited earlier experiments by Sir Francis Wenham of England in 1886. Wenham formed the Royal Aeronautical Society and praised the earlier efforts of his countryman, Sir George Caley. Three centuries earlier Leonardo da Vinci made sketches and descriptions of his ideas for a man carrying aircraft and he wrote, In the Bible Solomon, renowned for his wisdom included in the 30th chapter of Proverbs among those things which were too wonderful for him to understand the way of an eagle in the air. But birds were not the first creatures to fly, insects were. Within the hall of paleontology in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History there are many exhibits which show the forms of creatures which have long been extinct. Paleontologists are scientists who seek to find and study ancient forms of life by digging into the earth and uncovering the imprints and skeletons of plants and animals which lived long ago. Through study, particularly of the geographical area and then the depth at which the bones are found the age of the creature can be determined. By carefully separating the remains from the surrounding material called aggregate and then fitting the parts together scientists can determine what the creature may have looked like. Thus it was determined that this insect was the earliest form of flying creature. Paleontologists have named it the Meganura. It is the largest discovered and is believed to have lived 250 million years ago. The Meganura resembles the dragonfly of today. Its wingspan was about 30 inches. Long before the Meganura began to fly thousands of years must have elapsed during which some worm-like thing was struggling up through the mud and muck of the ancient world until finally it developed scales and then from the scales developed feathers and at last it sprang out and began to fly. As we continue to study the history of flight and as we continue on through life keep in mind that mankind that you can accomplish marvelous things by applying your mind and scales. For millions of years insects were the only flying creatures. During this time there gradually evolved enormous animals among them the dinosaurs. Some were tremendous being as long as 80 feet and weighing as much as 35 tons. As the dinosaurs were roaming the earth the largest flying creature that the world has ever known were moving about the sky. These were the pterosaurs. One group of pterosaurs was named the pterodactyls meaning wing finger. This name was given because of the outer extension of the principal wing bone. This bone corresponds to the fourth finger of the human hand. It was extremely long. The wings of these creatures did not have feathers. They were covered with membrane a thin leathery material. Pterodactyls lived largely on fish. Flying over water they would dive down and scoop up fish in their long bills. There were different forms and sizes of pterosaurs. Some were as small as a sparrow. Others had a wingspan of 20 feet. Pterosaurs were very light for their size weighing only about 20 pounds. Their bones were hollow and the outer shell of the bone was only about a sixteenth of an inch thick. The large pterodactyls were not powerful flyers and could not have flown very high. To appreciate the size of the largest pterodactyls we can compare its wingspan to that of one of the largest birds of today, the condor. The wingspan of the condor is about nine feet which is less than half the length of the ancient flyer. Pterosaurs had been called flying lizards. They were not birds. The earliest creature that was more bird than lizard was the archaeopteryx which is Greek for ancient wing. Fossil remains found in Bavaria showed that it had a long slender tail claws at the ends of its wing bones and a set of razor sharp teeth. These are lizard-like features. But the fossil imprints found in rocks clearly show that the archaeopteryx had feathers which undoubtedly developed from reptilian scales. The archaeopteryx was about the size of a crow. It was a poor flyer. But its legs and claws suggest that it could climb up a tree or onto a large rock and then glide. When running it could have used its wings for balance and to increase its speed. At the Smithsonian there is an exhibit showing the evolution of flying creatures from lizards to birds. One of the earliest creatures was the Hesperarnis which fed on marine life. Using its powerful rear limbs it was able to propel itself through the water. The duck-like Ixthearnis was a seabird which followed the era of the archaeopteryx. It resembles the terns which live today. The other birds are present-day descendants of the ancient reptiles. Nature has adapted wing shapes for various purposes. The wing of the frigate bird is shaped for prolonged flights and also for gliding. The long, broad wing of the turkey buzzard is designed for soaring. The small, pointed, narrow wing of the peregrine falcon is ideal for rapid sustained flight. The roughed gross, also called the partridge or pheasant, has a short, rounded wing which enables it to make quick starts for short flights. The smallest wing is out of the penguin. Penguins have lost their ability to fly, but the stub wing is used for moving this bird through the water. Birds fly through the air at various speeds. One of the slowest moving is the song sparrow which travels at about 17 miles per hour. The bronzed grackle flies at 28 miles per hour. The stalling can do 35 to 40 miles per hour. The quail, 49 miles per hour. The mallard duck, which travels at 60 miles per hour. The homing pigeon has been timed at 92 miles per hour. And the fastest of all the birds, the duck hawk, moves through the air at a speed of 180 miles per hour. The peregrine falcon, a type of hawk, is also an extremely fast moving bird. It is the symbol of the United States Air Force Academy. Many birds migrate from one area to another, principally to find food and comfort as the seasons change. The champion bird for distance flying is the Arctic turn. This bird, which is about 14 inches long, makes a yearly migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic and then back to the Arctic, a round-trip distance of about 25,000 miles. There are many forms of birds, and it is understandable that man watching them has been fascinated by their grace and beauty and has envied their ability to fly so easily from place to place. I, and no doubt you, have often wished that I could extend my arms and soar off into the air like a bird. And as man is like the bird, in his need and wish to go places. Similarly, man is like the bird in his skeletal structure. We can better understand a bird's form and wing action as we compare the two skeletons. The rib frame is similar. The pelvic area is nearly like man's, but man has only a little coccyc bone at the base of his spine where the bird has its tail. But look at the similarities between man's arm bone and the bird's wing bone. Man and the bird have an upper arm bone, a lower arm bone, a wrist bone, and a hand, but man's hand with its four fingers and a thumb is much more handy. On the bird's hand, there is a long finger. With this finger bone, it manipulates its feathers. The bird's little bone, which corresponds to our thumb, is called the alula. The bird uses it to help direct the flow of air over its wing. On an airplane, such a device is called a slot. It is most useful at slow speeds or when the wing is inclined at too steep an upward angle. To achieve flight, we must have three factors. Lift, propulsion, and control. In a bird's wing, most of the lift is on the intersection, most of the propulsion and control on the outer section. The profile of a bird's wing is much like that of an airplane wing. Both have a rounded entering edge, a thick forward portion, and taper to a thin trailing edge at the rear. Moving forward into the air, the airplane or bird, encountering the wind, the wind divides some going beneath, some over the top. That which goes beneath is compressed. That which goes over the top is rarefied because it zooms up and then has farther to go to get to the trailing edge. Thus with pressure beneath and rarefied air above, we have lift. We then add propulsion and control. Throughout the history of flight, there are examples of men who tried to fly by physical manipulation of wings moved by their arms and legs. But man's muscular power is much weaker in proportion to that of birds. Birds' muscles vary from 15% of their body weight to as much as 30% in hummingbirds. Birds' bones are much lighter than man's, but the principal feature that gives birds the advantage in moving their wings is the large keel or breast bone to which the wing muscles are attached. Man has nothing like that. Birds are a wonderful subject for study, and the Smithsonian Bird Hall is a most interesting place in which to learn more about them. There are about 20,000 types of birds. There are about 750,000 types of insects, most of which can fly. A hawkmouth insect is one of great interest because it can fly backwards as well as forwards. A number of so-called flying creatures are not real flyers, but are gliders. One example is this lizard which lives in Malaysia. The flying frog of southern Asia can beat on the air with its big feet and thus jump farther than our domestic variety. Flying fish use their rapidly beating tails for propulsion in the water and then leap from a wave crest using their for fins for lift. Once airborne, they skitter across the waves with repeated lashings of their tails in the water. Flying squirrels don't fly. They glide. These squirrels form an airlifting surface by spreading the skin that stretches from their body to their legs. While in the air, they wave their tails using them as a rudder and balancer. The only mammals that are true flyers are bats. There are about 800 different kinds of them. They range from those smaller than mice to those with wingspans of five feet or more. Bats are exceedingly agile in flight and can dart about in their search for food. They emit high-pitched sounds which echo back like a sonar system. Thus, they are informed of the whereabouts of food or obstacles into which they otherwise might crash. Forms of wings in nature can be found on seeds. Some are like wings, some like parachutes, some like propellers. Thus, the seed can be lifted from its original pod and carried to another location for planting. One of the most interesting glider seeds is that of the zanalia. It grows in East India. The seed pod is about the size of a nickel coin and the wingspan is about five inches. When released in the springtime, these seeds glide for hundreds of yards before coming to Earth. The shape of this seed wing was the pattern for the wing of an early eitric airplane. This airplane was later modified into the Austrian and German Taube. Thus, we have begun our story by reaching back to the beginnings of flight in nature about 250 million years ago. In our next meeting, I want to describe to you some of the ways in which man imagined that man flight might occur. And then, next in the path of history comes the kite, the first form of aircraft ever made by man. It originated in China about 3,000 years ago. Thank you.